DIRECT PRIMARIES

VERSUS CONVENTIONS

IN THE UNITED STATES

BY

ERNST CHRISTOPHER MEYER

MADISON, WIS.

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR

1902

PREFACE.

The general interest which has of late been manifested in primary reform, and the almost phenomenal spread of agitation in behalf of the nomination of candidates by a direct vote of the people, has led the author to present the results of his investigation to the public in the hope that it may contribute some share to the solution of the problem of nomination to public office, by arousing still further interest in the subject, and by opening up to the student of this question a fruitful field of experience which has remained largely unexplored heretofore.

The decline of our nominating institutions has been continuous ever since their origin. Their history of increasing corruption has been duplicated by our other political institutions, and, like them, they are gradually being forced into subjection to the law. Conceived in freedom, reared in license, matured in law, will be the complete story of their evolution. The last stage is still in its inception. It is difficult, uncertain, unsolved, and is the subject of the present study.

The primary, about which the discussion centers, is of fundamental importance. It is the citizen's citadel of right. It is the source of power in government. In purity, it is the fount from which the great blessings of democratic government flow. In corruption, it is to-day proving itself the curse of representative institutions.